Saturday, January 12, 2008

Being first in primaries ultimately doesn't matter. What matters is how many delegates the candidates win.

Democrats

Republicans

Clinton has locked in more than twice as many delegates as Obama, with 183 to his 78, according to a tracking tally kept by CNN. Romney has lined up 30 Republican delegates, with Huckabee close behind on 21 and McCain on 10. Despite the media fixation and voter attention that come from early wins in the presidential cycle, strategists in every camp are keeping one eye on the delegate count.

How has Clinton already snagged six times as many delegates as the leading Republican? The answer is "super-delegates", a unique feature of the Democratic race that allows senior party members to commit in advance to a candidate without being bound by primary results.

Super-delegates include all Democratic members of Congress, all Democratic governors, and all members of the Democratic national committee (DNC). Former presidents, vice presidents, DNC chairs and congressional leaders also are guaranteed ballots at the convention.

The former first lady has dominated the super-delegate chase, racking up 78 endorsements on Capitol Hill alone to Obama's 35. But Obama has begun closing the gap in recent days, winning over Arizona governor Janet Napolitano today and three senior members of Congress yesterday.

Leading in super-delegates is not always enough to keep a foundering candidacy alive. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean had the advantage in the early days of the 2004 election, yet he lost the nomination to John Kerry. (As DNC chairman, Dean is now a super-delegate himself.)

The wide-open nature of the race on both sides gives even more weight to February 5 - also known as "Super Tuesday" or "Tsunami Tuesday" - when more than 1,000 delegates will be distributed. Even if a candidate claims victory before the convention, however, the potential remains for a public clash when Democrats choose a nominee in Denver and Republicans gather a week later in Minneapolis.

Delegates from states that hold caucuses, such as Iowa and Nevada, technically are not bound to support their original candidate of choice. There are also a small percentage of delegates who head to the conventions un-pledged, waiting until the last minute to commit.

Clashes between warring factions within a party can turn explosive inside the conventions. As protests against the Vietnam war raged on outside the 1968 Democratic gathering in Chicago, anti-war candidates tried to derail the nomination of then-vice president Hubert Humphrey. At the Republican convention in 1976, a less violent fight broke out between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan for their party's nod.

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The Price of Sugar (2007)
In the Dominican Republic dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition.
Link to full length movie here:The Price Of Sugar

Edwidge Danticat – Reknown author:

Association of Haitian Journalists:

BOYCOTT the Dominican Republic as a rogue nation for making apartheid legal in the Western Hemisphere. Demand international sanctions and that Haiti's government STOP all trade/commerce with the DR and deport the DR ambassador and staff back to DR, recall its ambassador and staff from the DR IMMEDIATELY. Sign the petition

Lynching is an old U.S. Jim Crow method of terrorizing the African-American community. Lynching has been revived by ISIS.

Haitians are the least violent people in the Caribbean. Nations such as the colonized DR have 4 times more violence, larger militarized forces, more foreign owned property and lots of pedophile tourists and prostitution. US' colonization of the DR since the failed 1963 independence struggle, has made Dominican women the 4th most trafficked prostitutes in the world (after Brazil, Thailand, and the Philippines).

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Clean Water for Everyone in Haiti

Zili Dlo 2012 - Dream of a lifetime begins: Peasant Haiti mothers have arrived in India for training, two villages await for the light and help these mothers
will bring back PHOTOS

This summer, for Bwa Kayiman 2012 join Ezili's HLLN in partnership to help transfer solar engineering skills to Haitian women. Solar power will make Haiti's rural women and urban poor less dependent on USAID/ UN /NGOs.
WATCH THIS VIDEO and envision barefoot solar engineers for Haiti.
Be part of solution: Support Zili Dlo's solar programs for clean water and generating power from the sun. Clean Water is life and Health for Haiti: Support Haiti-led, Haiti-capacity building. Support Zili Dlo – Clean Water for Everyone in Haiti
Join our fundraising committee, or book an Ezili Danto presentation. Help Ezili's HLLN raise funds to finance education for Haiti's solar engineers and water trucks for more clean water delivery for our communities. Write to erzilidanto@yahoo.com.
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Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network

The Seizure of Haiti by the US: A Report on the Military Occupation of Haiti and the

History of the Treaty Forced Upon Her

Issued by The Foreign Policy Association

Endorsed & distributed by The National Popular Government League - April 1922

"Every material statement made in this document is derived from the Official Report of the Hearings before a Select Committee of the U.S. Senate pursuant to Senate Resolution 112, authorizing an inquiry into the occupation and administration of the territories of the Republic of Haiti..."

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Haitian Peasants Against Monsanto

A large demonstration of at least 10,000 farmers had occurred in central Haiti on Friday, June 4. organized by "Mouvman Peyizan Papay" or MPP, the peasants and a contingent of youths from the capital marched for three hours to the town of Hinche to protest the American multinational company Monsanto and demand the burning of 475 tons of roundup ready genetically modified seeds the company was trying to "give" Haiti.